Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery! What Pro did YOU try to play like?

For me, a VERY long time ago, it was Bjorn Borg who I first tried to emulate, hitting looping topspin strokes on both sides and all but abandoning my single handed slice backhand. I even bought a Donnay wood-fiberglass composit frem, that LOOKED like Borgs, but was very flexy and while it was years before Prince came along, it's small head and my 15 yr old arm could only muster an 89 mph. serve at a mall that had a speed gun setup for a contest that I knew I wouldn't win, but wanted to know how fast my serve was anyway!
A year or two later it was McEnroes serve I was trying to make work. I took a whole day hitting serve after serve on my own, to get something that looked like it, but at a much less radical sideways beginning than ol' Johnny Mac's was!
Last it was Pete Sampras. The Master.
I strung up my PK Comp. Destiny to 62 lbs. and lead'ed it up to about 13.5 oz or more, like I had heard Pet did on his Pro Staffs.
Got to volley pretty good, but I can remember only ONE "perfect serve", that went up the middle, kicking up on my friends forhand so fast he couldn't react, but said,"WHAT WAS THAT?!!"..I just said, "just my BEST SERVE EVER!".

I got into tennis later in life(37). after I went to the Us open a couple of times in the early 200's the two players that impressed me the most were Tommy Haas and Mark Phillipousis. Haas for his fantastic variety, 1HBH and all court play. I also liked that he showed his emotions on the court, Phillipousis I liked because he had such raw power, and ended points from all over the court with blazing winners, yet still managed to show some finesse up at the net. Obviously as I learned the game, I realized that there were better players out there, but to see these two guys live, early to my intro to the game, really changed my impression of the game, which at the time I thought was a pretty country club sport. Thes two showed me that tennis players are real athletes and from then on I was hooked. I still like and route for Haas to this day, but Fed is the player I feel has the best rounded game.

I would like to strap Federer, Nadal, the Williams girls, etc. into Esther V's wheelchair and see what they'd do. Saw a wheelchair exhibition and I must say, it's pretty impressive.

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there's a video of Nadal playing Vergeer on youtube.
before they played, one of the journalists asked Nadal if he would play Vergeer on a wheelchair. Nadal quickly dismissed that idea. He said, he couldn't do that because "Esther is a professional." :shock:

there's a video of Nadal playing Vergeer on youtube.
before they played, one of the journalists asked Nadal if he would play Vergeer on a wheelchair. Nadal quickly dismissed that idea. He said, he couldn't do that because "Esther is a professional." :shock:

Korda's strokes by a mile.
Easy to emulate, very efficient for the amount of energy expended, just powerful enough with some consisentcy, and pleasing to look at.

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Doesnt count unless you do scissor kicks as well.

Serve wise i just tried to blast them as hard as I could then they started going in. never really emulated anyones form. It was the same for strokes as well. I never really looked at form and stuff just tried to hit it really hard with spin. Taught myself a decent FH, but enver figured the BH out. Always tried 2HBH becuase Courier seemed like a baseball player who happened to switch to tennis and i was a baseball player.

Now baseball wise I emulated a couple guys. First it was Jose Canseco, then Mo Vaughn, and finally I had a little Bagwell in my swing. But by the time you get around 16-18 you sort of develop your own style. I think that's true in anything.

First it was Alberto Berasategui, my wrist is still sore, and it was back in 1994....
Later on it was Albert "the dropshot dragon" Portas i tried to play like and to a certain degree still have the same style as

First it was Alberto Berasategui, my wrist is still sore, and it was back in 1994....
Later on it was Albert "the dropshot dragon" Portas i tried to play like and to a certain degree still have the same style as

As a kid, Lendl was my hero and I copied his topspin forehand and backhand technique with the help of my coach. I saw Bettina Bunge play in person as much as I could, and really liked the speed and low bounce of her slice backhand, so I modeled my slice backhand after her.

As a kid, Lendl was my hero and I copied his topspin forehand and backhand technique with the help of my coach. I saw Bettina Bunge play in person as much as I could, and really liked the speed and low bounce of her slice backhand, so I modeled my slice backhand after her.

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I remember the name, but I don't think I saw her play but i can see from that shoulder turn and slight hip rotation could produce a wicked slice!
I teach kids and tell them to LEAN on the slice, like you were chopping down a tree with a Samurai sword!

^^^
Didn't Kent Carlsson play a similar game, but with a two-handed backhand? I think he also hit his forehand and backhand with the same side of the racquet, with extreme topspin.

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In trying to picture a combination of forehand and two-handed backhand that would only use ONE side of the racquet face, I felt like I would break my wrist IF I ever hit the ball on my forehand side! The grip was SO extremely Western, I see why he had a lot of topspin!

Always wanted to play like Agassi growing up outside of the serve, where I always tried to emulate Boris Becker. Now I'd say more of my play style emulates Becker than Agassi when I look at some older matches yet I don't recall ever watching much of Becker growing up. Go figure.